Direct Speech and First-Person Storytelling in Middle High German Epic Poetry

Epic Middle High German poetry is a sample of written language based on oral tradition. Such literary works can play an important role in addressing the issue of reconstruction of some features that are natural for medieval oral speech. To investigate these features, of particular concern is direct speech of characters and first-person storytelling. There are three primary aims of this study: (1) to explore aspects of direct speech of epic characters; (2) to examine the role and functions of direct speech in the text; (3) to investigate the relationship between direct speech of characters and first-person storytelling. This study uses a qualitative approach. The material for this study was the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied. The current study found that direct speech of characters in the Nibelungenlied has three layers: the layer of oral tradition, the layer of oral speech of the 12th-13th centuries, and the layer of written language. The layer of oral tradition is presented by repetition of specific phrases. Some of speech patterns for introducing direct speech (like Do sprach...) are comparable with patterns in the Eddic poems, which can indicate that such patterns emulate or are taken from oral tradition. To this layer also belongs first-person storytelling. The author sometimes addresses the listeners directly and points out that he has heard the story told. The same technique is used by inner storytellers. The layer of oral speech of the 12th-13th centuries is shown by ceremonial speech patterns (addresses, requests) and by the opposition between ir and du (plural you and singular you). The layer of written language is exposed by double negation (emphatic negation) and tense forms. The main tense forms are the present indicative and the perfect indicative. Another essential feature is clitics. The results show that there is a big number of both proclitics and enclitics in the direct speech of epic characters. Clitics are an integral part of double negation. Double negation in Middle High German was usually presented by two negative words in the same sentence. One of these words was formed with adding either a negative proclitic to a verb or a negative enclitic to a pronoun. If we turn to the content, through direct speech we can see ideas that were typical of medieval society, for example, the real, not ceremonial, attitude to women. The study has shown that the share of direct speech in the Nibelungenlied is about 38% of the whole poem, 24% of which occurs in the second part (Chapters 20-39). These results suggest that direct speech has a great impact on the construction of the text.

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